Natural immunity six times stronger than vaccines alone during delta wave | Hacker News Reader

Natural immunity six times stronger than vaccines alone during delta wave

kdvr.com

6 pointstypeofhuman7 comments

Natural immunity was also many orders of magnitude more likely to kill you than vaccines.

The best way to avoid dying from Covid is a vaccine. This study doesn't change that.

I previously made a "joke" in relation the same point - dying among people who have died from covid is lower than among vaccinated.

But I understand that this discussion comes up about restrictions - why are the convalescents not treated the same as vaccinate?

I think they should. Both should have about 4-5 months before getting a booster. ;)

> why are the convalescents not treated the same as vaccinate?

Two reasons:

1) people with natural immunity are still better off if they get vaccines;

2) allowing natural immunity to count as a vaccine is encouraging and rewarding potentially dangerous behavior -- like trying to get Covid and/or give it to your family

1) Sure, it is better, but it was not by much during delta wave when these decisions were made.

2) Well, if you are not clearly open about this, you are hurting the trust. People can be stupid but not this stupid that they do not understand that they are being manipulated.

If you want people to trust you, you have to be completely honest.

> Sure, it is better, but it was not by much during delta wave when these decisions were made.

mRNA vaccine protection dropped during delta, but only because that technology wanes after a few months. J&J (and other traditional vaccines) have lower but more durable protection.

The conclusion would be that getting vaccinated and boostered is still much safer than getting Covid without any vaccination.

> Well, if you are not clearly open about this, you are hurting the trust.

Natural immunity was less protective against Covid than recent vaccination.

The CDC also just released a study about how effective natural immunity is. There's no reason for them to hide it or lie about it because it doesn't change the basic fact that it's safer to get vaccinated than to acquire natural immunity by getting the disease.

That's what all the official messaging says: natural immunity is protective, but it's much safer to just get a vaccine before you're infected.

2) vaccines don't prevent transmission

What does that have to do with #2? If everyone in the target group is vaccinated, you don't need to worry about it.

The alternative -- "covid parties" where people infect each other intentionally -- is vastly more likely to kill someone who could otherwise get a vaccine.

Anyway, vaccines reduce transmission[1][2][3][4].

1. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2116597

2. https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/how-vaccines-...

3. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02689-y

4. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2021/12/vaccinated-wh...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com